Billerica selectman calls out 'micro-managing'

By Evan Lips, elips@lowellsun.com

Updated:
12/06/2012 07:14:29 AM EST

BILLERICA -- The day after he proposed a policy aimed at preventing selectmen from micro-managing day-to-day town affairs, Selectman Dave Gagliardi disputed claims that his proposals were in response to another board member's actions.

Gagliardi, who has been an active member on town boards and commissions since 1995 and a selectman since the spring of 2011, said Tuesday the business of board members mico-managing "goes back a long, long time."

"To illustrate my point, since 1995 we've gone through six town managers," he said. "If you look around at all the other towns, they've gone through two at the maximum."

Town Clerk Shirley Schult confirmed that current Town Manager John Curran, named to the post in November 2009, is the sixth town manager in Billerica in the last 17 years.

"Virtually to a man, every single one of them told me that one of the reasons they left was because of micro-managing on the part of the Board of Selectmen," Gagliardi added.

As of its latest edition in 2007, language in the Town Charter pertaining to Billerica's executive branch states that the "Board of Selectmen shall serve as chief policy-making agency of the town" but "provided, however, that no individual member of the board, nor a majority of them, shall at any time, attempt to become involved in the day-to-day administration of the affairs of the town."

The charter does not contain language on what penalties selectmen would face should they tread over this rule.

Gagliardi's proposal would change that.

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According to the language he introduced at Monday's meeting, selectmen who skirt the law would be censured, specifically "the offending member shall be made to stand and face the board and a reading of the findings surrounding the violation and an official rebuke of such member shall be imposed" during a meeting.

"They would have to stand there at a public meeting and have the list of complaints read against them," said Gagliardi. "That would tarnish their image when they run for re-election. That would brand them."

Monday was the first reading of Gagliardi's proposals. Selectmen revisit his list on Dec. 17.

Before Monday's meeting, Selectman Mike Rosa said he had "no doubt whatsoever" that Gagliardi's proposals represent "carryover from the referendum," a reference to last month's resounding townwide vote against a $14 million Town Common redesign proposal.

Rosa was the only board member who opposed the project and voiced his displeasure loudly when his colleagues voted to schedule the referendum on a Monday as opposed to Saturday, the day town elections are traditionally held in Billerica. Rosa and other project opponents said turnout would be lower on a Monday -- and turnout would be crucial as a negative outcome on the referendum needed at least 20 percent voter participation to be ratified.

When selectmen met to vote on scheduling the referendum, Gagliardi introduced two memos produced by the Town Clerk's Office citing a preference for a Monday election. Rosa, however, introduced an Oct 26 email he had secured from Schult's office in which she wrote to Curran, "I have no objection to either day," adding, "I'm sure the schools would be happier with the Saturday date."

The email was not part of the meeting's information packet. Gagliardi said he was unaware of Schult's email and added that she later requested a Monday to offer more time for processing absentee ballots.

Banning the introduction of last-minute information that is not part of each selectman's meeting packet, unless the board votes otherwise, is another policy proposed by Gagliardi.

"I look at it as sandbagging other members," he said. "It has to stop."

A third policy proposal refers to communications with Town Counsel Pat Costello, Billerica's attorney. Gagliardi proposed that members looking to speak to Costello on legal matters must first go through the Town Manager's Office. He argued that several members individually calling Costello was "tying up the town counsel's time."

"Change comes very hard to people," Gagliardi said. "I've never been one to accept a 'well we've always done it that way' explanation."

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